Blockworks Research: Only 4.1% of cryptocurrencies outperform BTC, with a median loss of 97%

A research report published by Blockworks Research shows that among the 1,972 tokens that first broke through a circulating market value of $50 million between January 2020 and December 2025, only 4.1% outperformed Bitcoin as of June 2026. Among tokens with at least 24 months of historical data, this percentage drops to 1.7%. The median token in the full sample has lost 97% since entering the statistics.

The report points out that the token market presents a pyramid structure with a "wider base and thinner top." The number of tokens with a market value exceeding $1 million reached a historical high of 3,648 in December 2024, but the tier with a market value exceeding $250 million has continued to shrink since peaking in November 2021, with only 102 tokens above that threshold as of June 2026, about one-third of the 279 in November 2021. Among the 187 tokens that outperformed Bitcoin during the 2020-21 bull market, 86.1% have since fallen at least 90% from their peak in November 2021, with only OKB continuing to outperform Bitcoin.

The report also found that token performance deteriorates more rapidly over time: 86% of tokens issued in 2024 fell below 10% of their initial price within 24 months, while the proportion for tokens from 2020 during the same period was 18%. The median peak price of new tokens after 2023 is only 0.93 times the listing price, meaning it has never exceeded the listing price, while the median peak price for 2020 tokens reached 5.1 times. Exchange tokens are the only significant over-representatives in the long-term outperforming Bitcoin group, with BNB, OKB, GT, LEO, BGB, WBT, MX, and CAKE (PancakeSwap) all outperforming Bitcoin, sharing the common feature of fee revenue being used for regular buybacks and burns. The report's authors state that the crypto market is shifting from a broad token expansion to a pattern driven by a few high-quality assets.